From Apple’s AirPrint to cloud services like HP’s ePrint to powerful enterprise server software, I give a primer on the different ways you can print from your smartphone or tablet.
This article from Eric Lai of Forbes.com has a year old study from InfoTrends that found the biggest reasons why people didn’t print from their mobile device. The top reason was lack of access to a printer (48 per cent) and second was lack of support from a mobile device (32 per cent). But the more interest reason was No. 3: no need to print at 29 per cent.
Related Story: Is the market for personal printers dying?
I really believe end users today have no thought or desire to print something that they find of interest on the smartphone. If they do want to keep a record of it they just save it on their smartphone and call it up late. As for a tablet device they fact that WiFi is everywhere means there is no need to print a copy of it to store somewhere, where it gets lost or forgotten about. That document or information is in the cloud to be retrieved at a moments notice.
Printing for business is still there but it has become more of a document management exercise. The channel has produced several highly reliable managed print services companies that can take care of a worker’s printing needs.
And don’t be surprised if these same managed print services providers offer an AirPrint type of service soon.